The invention relates to a dust separator for use with dust-generating machines and/or plant for use in underground mining and tunnel construction, comprising a drive acting upon a fan impeller and disposed at the inlet side of the washer housing, inlet-side water nozzles and the separating elements for the dust-containing water, which are disposed at the outlet side, as well as a water tank with a valve-controlled water inlet and water outlet as well as a drain valve for the sludge.
In underground mining as well as in other branches of industry, dust separators are used to separate, in particular, respirable dust from the ambient air and deposit it in a safe place. So-called dry dust separators are known, in which the dust is conveyed through filter elements and so the dust is removed, wherein the filters equipped with a suitable filter cloth are dedusted at regular intervals in order to ensure a long service life of such filters. Apart from the fact that such dust separators are relatively large, it is a disadvantage that they have to be cleaned at specific intervals. For said purpose so-called rotary or wet washers are used, whereby the air containing dust is sucked, by means of a fan impeller operating in the air stream, into the washer housing before being loaded with finely distributed water and separated from said dust-containing water in downstream separating elements. The problem here is keeping the discharging clean air dry because, particularly in underground mining, moist air in turn poses additional problems.